9

After placing Arwin's body in his bedroom, everyone gathered in the living room to discuss the strange events of the past twenty-four hours.

"In case there's anyone in this room who has not been paying attention," spoke up Judge Moseby, "I shall give you all a brief recap: London, Muriel, and Arwin are all dead, and we have no idea what's going on."

"Sorry, what was that?" asked Zack, looking up from his Game Boy.

"Uh, Zack?" said Cody.

"What is it now?" said Zack irritably.

"This takes place in the nineteen-thirties," said Cody. "Game Boys weren't invented yet."

"Who said it had to be in the thirties?" shrugged Zack. "It's our rewrite, we can do whatever we want, right?"

"Except in chapter three, it was already stated that the guests all committed their crimes in the twenties and thirties," argued Cody. "Do you really think our teacher would be dense enough to look over those kind of details?!?"

"If she's anything like a typical oblivious, stupid-beyond-reason adult on a kid-centric sitcom, then yes," replied Zack.

"Would you stop talking like that and get back to work?" demanded Cody.

"Fine," sighed Zack. "Erase 'Game Boy' and put in 'magazine'. Party pooper."

"Sorry, what was that?" asked Zack, looking up from his magazine.

Judge Moseby sighed. Clearly, he still had some way to go in order to nail this into each guest's mind. He spoke: "Three are dead and we have no idea why."

"But isn't it obvious?" asked Maddie. "This UN Owen thinks we're all murderers and is trying to punish us for crimes he thinks we all committed."

Zack smiled at Maddie. "I don't think you killed anyone," he said. "You're too...too...oh, what's that word for someone who always does what is right because they know it is right?"

"Virtuous?" suggested Patrick.

"No thank you, I'd much prefer a cookie," said Zack. "But you see my point, right?"

Maddie smiled. "Of course," she said.

Esteban cleared his throat. "Ah, guys?" he said. "Back to our little misadventure?"

Zack and Maddie were snapped back to reality. "Oh, yeah," they both said awkwardly. Zack then said, "London's unfortunate death may have been suicide, and Muriel's death might have been an accident, but Arwin's death for sure must have been murder. Unless they were all coincidental, of course."

"So what you're saying is, London committed suicide, Muriel was accidentally given an overdose, and someone randomly decided to kill Arwin?" said Carey slowly.

"Sure, why not?" asked Zack.

"That is the stupidest theory I have ever heard," said Carey frankly.

"Thank you," smiled Zack.

"I can provide an alternate theory," said Cody, standing up. "A much more likely theory." He looked at each and every person in the room. "London and Muriel were indeed murdered. They were murdered by someone who knows a lot about all of us."

"Oh no," said Esteban, blanching. "Do they know about...the hot dog incident?"

"No, I don't think so," said Cody slowly.

Esteban let out a sigh of relief.

Cody ignored this little weirdness and went on: "Even though we searched the house from top to bottom, we found absolutely no trace of this Mr. Owen. The reason why is simple: Mr. Owen is one of us."

At that exact moment, there was a crash of lightning outside, causing Esteban to shriek and jump and accidentally pour tea all over Judge Moseby. When Esteban finally calmed down, he said, "Oh, sorry Moseby."

Just as Zack finished speaking, the two policemen came out of the room. "We have finished questioning your mother," said the shorter one. "Now, we would like to speak to the both of you. Don't worry, this won't take long."

"I guess our rewrite will have to wait for a while," sighed Zack.

Cody was silent. He had a sinking feeling that he and Zack wouldn't miss their own rewrite all that much, for the events in their life were slowly beginning to parallel the events in their rewrite...